Moving to DC for 4th Grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interviewing for two jobs in DC, located in Dupont Circle and Navy Yard, after living elsewhere for 8 years. My DC will be in 4th grade next year, and while getting either job is not assured, I want to be thinking ahead with the lottery coming up. I own a house on the eastern edge of Kingman Park, zoned for Miner. And I'm a single parent, so there's no one else to help get DC to and from school each day.

I know DCPS does not offer gifted programming, which DC currently receives, so I'm looking for input on schools to consider that there is a realistic shot of getting a lottery seat with at least some academic peers. I'm not interested in Montessori or immersion. I know Brent is in a swing space that isn't ideal from the Hill, and that they also lose a ton of kids at the upper grades. Maury is basically impossible to get into in any grade. Two Rivers fell off a cliff in the years I've been gone. Are there other schools I should be considering beyond the list below, with an eye towards reducing commute yet still having a sizable enough cohort of high achieving kids?

Ludlow-Taylor
Payne
John Francis (less than ideal if I get the Navy Yard job, but really convenient for Dupont)
Watkins
JO Wilson
Chisholm
Thomson (also less than ideal for a Navy Yard job, okay for Dupont)

The only charter that seemed to fit my criteria was Friendship Chamberlain. The other higher achieving charters are mostly language immersion and/or an inconvenient commute. Am I missing any?

And before anyone asks, no, moving to another part of the Hill, let alone Ward 3, isn't really an option. I'm loathe to give up the sub-3% interest rate, and while I would make a decent amount of money selling, it's not enough to offset how much prices have gone up and the much higher interest rates.

The lack of gifted programming does kind of stink. Do whatever works for 4th and then try for Latin or BASIS or DCI.

Our path was solved by going to BASIS (which has flaws, but at least they are challenged and learn a lot and have lots of gifted peers) and doing CTY in the summers (also popular with BASIS students).

Basis isn’t great but better than other offerings. Take a look at some high school threads to see why.

BASIS seems to only work for a very specific kind of kid. The school has a huge amount of turnover among students, and goes very deep into its waitlist. Latin is basically the opposite. They take very few kids and almost no one turns then down or leaves.

Because of lack of rigor and social promotion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also seriously consider Payne to Eliot-Hine. It is a realistic lottery option which does not require moving that would for you be an easy commute. Your child could even walk home when needed from middle school.

I wouldn't. Eliot-Hine promises families of high-performing students plenty of appropriate challenge but doesn't deliver. The reality is that you wind up half homeschooling your kid for MS if your kid is advanced, particularly for humanities subjects. Realistic lottery options and easy commutes are great, but EH isn't, particularly if your kid isn't a self-starter. We have close friends who are considering leaving EH afer 6th grade and 7th grade. Their high achieving students haven't been challenged at EH, other than for math. Same story with SH.

+1. Both SH and EH were non-starters for us.

BTW math is not very advanced either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also seriously consider Payne to Eliot-Hine. It is a realistic lottery option which does not require moving that would for you be an easy commute. Your child could even walk home when needed from middle school.

I wouldn't. Eliot-Hine promises families of high-performing students plenty of appropriate challenge but doesn't deliver. The reality is that you wind up half homeschooling your kid for MS if your kid is advanced, particularly for humanities subjects. Realistic lottery options and easy commutes are great, but EH isn't, particularly if your kid isn't a self-starter. We have close friends who are considering leaving EH afer 6th grade and 7th grade. Their high achieving students haven't been challenged at EH, other than for math. Same story with SH.

Leaving and going where?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also seriously consider Payne to Eliot-Hine. It is a realistic lottery option which does not require moving that would for you be an easy commute. Your child could even walk home when needed from middle school.

I wouldn't. Eliot-Hine promises families of high-performing students plenty of appropriate challenge but doesn't deliver. The reality is that you wind up half homeschooling your kid for MS if your kid is advanced, particularly for humanities subjects. Realistic lottery options and easy commutes are great, but EH isn't, particularly if your kid isn't a self-starter. We have close friends who are considering leaving EH afer 6th grade and 7th grade. Their high achieving students haven't been challenged at EH, other than for math. Same story with SH.

Leaving and going where?

NP of you can’t do privates then move to burbs for solid middle and high school. If you work near CH or downtown, then Arlington.

Better to do it if you strike out in the lottery for middle then to send your kid to either schools and then have to homeschool and get tutors to only strike out again in high school and move which is much harder socially for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interviewing for two jobs in DC, located in Dupont Circle and Navy Yard, after living elsewhere for 8 years. My DC will be in 4th grade next year, and while getting either job is not assured, I want to be thinking ahead with the lottery coming up. I own a house on the eastern edge of Kingman Park, zoned for Miner. And I'm a single parent, so there's no one else to help get DC to and from school each day.

I know DCPS does not offer gifted programming, which DC currently receives, so I'm looking for input on schools to consider that there is a realistic shot of getting a lottery seat with at least some academic peers. I'm not interested in Montessori or immersion. I know Brent is in a swing space that isn't ideal from the Hill, and that they also lose a ton of kids at the upper grades. Maury is basically impossible to get into in any grade. Two Rivers fell off a cliff in the years I've been gone. Are there other schools I should be considering beyond the list below, with an eye towards reducing commute yet still having a sizable enough cohort of high achieving kids?

Ludlow-Taylor
Payne
John Francis (less than ideal if I get the Navy Yard job, but really convenient for Dupont)
Watkins
JO Wilson
Chisholm
Thomson (also less than ideal for a Navy Yard job, okay for Dupont)

The only charter that seemed to fit my criteria was Friendship Chamberlain. The other higher achieving charters are mostly language immersion and/or an inconvenient commute. Am I missing any?

And before anyone asks, no, moving to another part of the Hill, let alone Ward 3, isn't really an option. I'm loathe to give up the sub-3% interest rate, and while I would make a decent amount of money selling, it's not enough to offset how much prices have gone up and the much higher interest rates.

The lack of gifted programming does kind of stink. Do whatever works for 4th and then try for Latin or BASIS or DCI.

Our path was solved by going to BASIS (which has flaws, but at least they are challenged and learn a lot and have lots of gifted peers) and doing CTY in the summers (also popular with BASIS students).

Basis isn’t great but better than other offerings. Take a look at some high school threads to see why.

BASIS seems to only work for a very specific kind of kid. The school has a huge amount of turnover among students, and goes very deep into its waitlist. Latin is basically the opposite. They take very few kids and almost no one turns then down or leaves.

Because of lack of rigor and social promotion.

It's been wild to see just how rigorous BASIS is. Like 99th percentile aptitude students who would easily by straight A students at a DCPS school getting Fs on tests. It's a GAUNTLET and it's not for everyone. (Though my kid loves it!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interviewing for two jobs in DC, located in Dupont Circle and Navy Yard, after living elsewhere for 8 years. My DC will be in 4th grade next year, and while getting either job is not assured, I want to be thinking ahead with the lottery coming up. I own a house on the eastern edge of Kingman Park, zoned for Miner. And I'm a single parent, so there's no one else to help get DC to and from school each day.

I know DCPS does not offer gifted programming, which DC currently receives, so I'm looking for input on schools to consider that there is a realistic shot of getting a lottery seat with at least some academic peers. I'm not interested in Montessori or immersion. I know Brent is in a swing space that isn't ideal from the Hill, and that they also lose a ton of kids at the upper grades. Maury is basically impossible to get into in any grade. Two Rivers fell off a cliff in the years I've been gone. Are there other schools I should be considering beyond the list below, with an eye towards reducing commute yet still having a sizable enough cohort of high achieving kids?

Ludlow-Taylor
Payne
John Francis (less than ideal if I get the Navy Yard job, but really convenient for Dupont)
Watkins
JO Wilson
Chisholm
Thomson (also less than ideal for a Navy Yard job, okay for Dupont)

The only charter that seemed to fit my criteria was Friendship Chamberlain. The other higher achieving charters are mostly language immersion and/or an inconvenient commute. Am I missing any?

And before anyone asks, no, moving to another part of the Hill, let alone Ward 3, isn't really an option. I'm loathe to give up the sub-3% interest rate, and while I would make a decent amount of money selling, it's not enough to offset how much prices have gone up and the much higher interest rates.

The lack of gifted programming does kind of stink. Do whatever works for 4th and then try for Latin or BASIS or DCI.

Our path was solved by going to BASIS (which has flaws, but at least they are challenged and learn a lot and have lots of gifted peers) and doing CTY in the summers (also popular with BASIS students).

Basis isn’t great but better than other offerings. Take a look at some high school threads to see why.

BASIS seems to only work for a very specific kind of kid. The school has a huge amount of turnover among students, and goes very deep into its waitlist. Latin is basically the opposite. They take very few kids and almost no one turns then down or leaves.

Because of lack of rigor and social promotion.

It's been wild to see just how rigorous BASIS is. Like 99th percentile aptitude students who would easily by straight A students at a DCPS school getting Fs on tests. It's a GAUNTLET and it's not for everyone. (Though my kid loves it!)

(And will quickly add that since there are so many tests there are lot of chances to bring grades up! But the standards really are high. At orientation the academic dean said "every BASIS student will fail something at some point"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interviewing for two jobs in DC, located in Dupont Circle and Navy Yard, after living elsewhere for 8 years. My DC will be in 4th grade next year, and while getting either job is not assured, I want to be thinking ahead with the lottery coming up. I own a house on the eastern edge of Kingman Park, zoned for Miner. And I'm a single parent, so there's no one else to help get DC to and from school each day.

I know DCPS does not offer gifted programming, which DC currently receives, so I'm looking for input on schools to consider that there is a realistic shot of getting a lottery seat with at least some academic peers. I'm not interested in Montessori or immersion. I know Brent is in a swing space that isn't ideal from the Hill, and that they also lose a ton of kids at the upper grades. Maury is basically impossible to get into in any grade. Two Rivers fell off a cliff in the years I've been gone. Are there other schools I should be considering beyond the list below, with an eye towards reducing commute yet still having a sizable enough cohort of high achieving kids?

Ludlow-Taylor
Payne
John Francis (less than ideal if I get the Navy Yard job, but really convenient for Dupont)
Watkins
JO Wilson
Chisholm
Thomson (also less than ideal for a Navy Yard job, okay for Dupont)

The only charter that seemed to fit my criteria was Friendship Chamberlain. The other higher achieving charters are mostly language immersion and/or an inconvenient commute. Am I missing any?

And before anyone asks, no, moving to another part of the Hill, let alone Ward 3, isn't really an option. I'm loathe to give up the sub-3% interest rate, and while I would make a decent amount of money selling, it's not enough to offset how much prices have gone up and the much higher interest rates.

The lack of gifted programming does kind of stink. Do whatever works for 4th and then try for Latin or BASIS or DCI.

Our path was solved by going to BASIS (which has flaws, but at least they are challenged and learn a lot and have lots of gifted peers) and doing CTY in the summers (also popular with BASIS students).

Basis isn’t great but better than other offerings. Take a look at some high school threads to see why.

BASIS seems to only work for a very specific kind of kid. The school has a huge amount of turnover among students, and goes very deep into its waitlist. Latin is basically the opposite. They take very few kids and almost no one turns then down or leaves.

Because of lack of rigor and social promotion.

No. Because like PP said, BASIS is for a specific kind of kid. Latin is for all kinds of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would consider Arlington and solid elementary/middle/ and high school path. It is easy commute to where you will be.

You have to think about middle school and chances are slim to none for the charters.

I'm not moving to Arlington, full stop. We're returning to DC if either of these jobs come through and sticking with the Kingman Park house. I'm aware of the challenges with many DC middle and high schools.

Wow. I’m a Hill mom, in bounds for Stuart Hobson and my kid goes to Basis and I would suggest that you move to the burbs. Which is what you don’t want to do so I got nothing else for you. I walk past Stuart Hobson all the time walking my dog and I’m glad my kids don’t go there, though there are some great kids there and the principal seems really really engaged and hardworking.

Your reaction to someone saying moving isn’t feasible for the family financially is “wow,” because you view the outside of a school their kids might possibly attend and are glad yours doesn’t go there? You sound like real gem.

Why do these posters always have kids at BASIS?

Go back and re-read the post. They said their kid goes to BASIS "and I would suggest that you move to the burbs".

I have no horse in BASIS or S-H race. Your response of lashing out at BASIS says very little about anyone else and a great deal about you and how you feel about S-H. If you get that triggered by someone else saying they think your school is subpar then maybe time to look in the mirror?

You lashed out at another school and parent. Did it really make you feel better? Did it make S-H a better school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also seriously consider Payne to Eliot-Hine. It is a realistic lottery option which does not require moving that would for you be an easy commute. Your child could even walk home when needed from middle school.

I wouldn't. Eliot-Hine promises families of high-performing students plenty of appropriate challenge but doesn't deliver. The reality is that you wind up half homeschooling your kid for MS if your kid is advanced, particularly for humanities subjects. Realistic lottery options and easy commutes are great, but EH isn't, particularly if your kid isn't a self-starter. We have close friends who are considering leaving EH afer 6th grade and 7th grade. Their high achieving students haven't been challenged at EH, other than for math. Same story with SH.

Leaving and going where?

NP of you can’t do privates then move to burbs for solid middle and high school. If you work near CH or downtown, then Arlington.

Better to do it if you strike out in the lottery for middle then to send your kid to either schools and then have to homeschool and get tutors to only strike out again in high school and move which is much harder socially for your kid.

Very hard to imagine someone that with a 7th grader is seriously considering moving to the suburbs just to avoid a final year at E-H or S-H. At that point, why wouldn't you wait to see how HS lottery pans out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interviewing for two jobs in DC, located in Dupont Circle and Navy Yard, after living elsewhere for 8 years. My DC will be in 4th grade next year, and while getting either job is not assured, I want to be thinking ahead with the lottery coming up. I own a house on the eastern edge of Kingman Park, zoned for Miner. And I'm a single parent, so there's no one else to help get DC to and from school each day.

I know DCPS does not offer gifted programming, which DC currently receives, so I'm looking for input on schools to consider that there is a realistic shot of getting a lottery seat with at least some academic peers. I'm not interested in Montessori or immersion. I know Brent is in a swing space that isn't ideal from the Hill, and that they also lose a ton of kids at the upper grades. Maury is basically impossible to get into in any grade. Two Rivers fell off a cliff in the years I've been gone. Are there other schools I should be considering beyond the list below, with an eye towards reducing commute yet still having a sizable enough cohort of high achieving kids?

Ludlow-Taylor
Payne
John Francis (less than ideal if I get the Navy Yard job, but really convenient for Dupont)
Watkins
JO Wilson
Chisholm
Thomson (also less than ideal for a Navy Yard job, okay for Dupont)

The only charter that seemed to fit my criteria was Friendship Chamberlain. The other higher achieving charters are mostly language immersion and/or an inconvenient commute. Am I missing any?

And before anyone asks, no, moving to another part of the Hill, let alone Ward 3, isn't really an option. I'm loathe to give up the sub-3% interest rate, and while I would make a decent amount of money selling, it's not enough to offset how much prices have gone up and the much higher interest rates.

The lack of gifted programming does kind of stink. Do whatever works for 4th and then try for Latin or BASIS or DCI.

Our path was solved by going to BASIS (which has flaws, but at least they are challenged and learn a lot and have lots of gifted peers) and doing CTY in the summers (also popular with BASIS students).

Basis isn’t great but better than other offerings. Take a look at some high school threads to see why.

BASIS seems to only work for a very specific kind of kid. The school has a huge amount of turnover among students, and goes very deep into its waitlist. Latin is basically the opposite. They take very few kids and almost no one turns then down or leaves.

Because of lack of rigor and social promotion.

It's been wild to see just how rigorous BASIS is. Like 99th percentile aptitude students who would easily by straight A students at a DCPS school getting Fs on tests. It's a GAUNTLET and it's not for everyone. (Though my kid loves it!)

(And will quickly add that since there are so many tests there are lot of chances to bring grades up! But the standards really are high. At orientation the academic dean said "every BASIS student will fail something at some point"

My kid goes to Latin. I've stopping counting how many F's my child has received. They hand them out like it's their job. It's great though. The kids respond to high standards. DCPS could take note.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also seriously consider Payne to Eliot-Hine. It is a realistic lottery option which does not require moving that would for you be an easy commute. Your child could even walk home when needed from middle school.

I wouldn't. Eliot-Hine promises families of high-performing students plenty of appropriate challenge but doesn't deliver. The reality is that you wind up half homeschooling your kid for MS if your kid is advanced, particularly for humanities subjects. Realistic lottery options and easy commutes are great, but EH isn't, particularly if your kid isn't a self-starter. We have close friends who are considering leaving EH afer 6th grade and 7th grade. Their high achieving students haven't been challenged at EH, other than for math. Same story with SH.

Leaving and going where?

Private or suburb. They're giving up on DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would also seriously consider Payne to Eliot-Hine. It is a realistic lottery option which does not require moving that would for you be an easy commute. Your child could even walk home when needed from middle school.

I wouldn't. Eliot-Hine promises families of high-performing students plenty of appropriate challenge but doesn't deliver. The reality is that you wind up half homeschooling your kid for MS if your kid is advanced, particularly for humanities subjects. Realistic lottery options and easy commutes are great, but EH isn't, particularly if your kid isn't a self-starter. We have close friends who are considering leaving EH afer 6th grade and 7th grade. Their high achieving students haven't been challenged at EH, other than for math. Same story with SH.

Leaving and going where?

NP of you can’t do privates then move to burbs for solid middle and high school. If you work near CH or downtown, then Arlington.

Better to do it if you strike out in the lottery for middle then to send your kid to either schools and then have to homeschool and get tutors to only strike out again in high school and move which is much harder socially for your kid.

Very hard to imagine someone that with a 7th grader is seriously considering moving to the suburbs just to avoid a final year at E-H or S-H. At that point, why wouldn't you wait to see how HS lottery pans out?

No, not hard to believe. We have longtime Capitol Hill neighbors who moved to MoCo for 7th grade for their eldest last year. Other neighbors moved to Arlington for 8th grade. They couldn't take more of the uncertainty of not knowing if they had a decent public school going up the chain. Both families are renting in the burbs. They say they're planning to return to the Hill as empty nesters. These people were shut out of the Latins, BASIS and SH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interviewing for two jobs in DC, located in Dupont Circle and Navy Yard, after living elsewhere for 8 years. My DC will be in 4th grade next year, and while getting either job is not assured, I want to be thinking ahead with the lottery coming up. I own a house on the eastern edge of Kingman Park, zoned for Miner. And I'm a single parent, so there's no one else to help get DC to and from school each day.

I know DCPS does not offer gifted programming, which DC currently receives, so I'm looking for input on schools to consider that there is a realistic shot of getting a lottery seat with at least some academic peers. I'm not interested in Montessori or immersion. I know Brent is in a swing space that isn't ideal from the Hill, and that they also lose a ton of kids at the upper grades. Maury is basically impossible to get into in any grade. Two Rivers fell off a cliff in the years I've been gone. Are there other schools I should be considering beyond the list below, with an eye towards reducing commute yet still having a sizable enough cohort of high achieving kids?

Ludlow-Taylor
Payne
John Francis (less than ideal if I get the Navy Yard job, but really convenient for Dupont)
Watkins
JO Wilson
Chisholm
Thomson (also less than ideal for a Navy Yard job, okay for Dupont)

The only charter that seemed to fit my criteria was Friendship Chamberlain. The other higher achieving charters are mostly language immersion and/or an inconvenient commute. Am I missing any?

And before anyone asks, no, moving to another part of the Hill, let alone Ward 3, isn't really an option. I'm loathe to give up the sub-3% interest rate, and while I would make a decent amount of money selling, it's not enough to offset how much prices have gone up and the much higher interest rates.

The lack of gifted programming does kind of stink. Do whatever works for 4th and then try for Latin or BASIS or DCI.

Our path was solved by going to BASIS (which has flaws, but at least they are challenged and learn a lot and have lots of gifted peers) and doing CTY in the summers (also popular with BASIS students).

Basis isn’t great but better than other offerings. Take a look at some high school threads to see why.

BASIS seems to only work for a very specific kind of kid. The school has a huge amount of turnover among students, and goes very deep into its waitlist. Latin is basically the opposite. They take very few kids and almost no one turns then down or leaves.

Because of lack of rigor and social promotion.

It's been wild to see just how rigorous BASIS is. Like 99th percentile aptitude students who would easily by straight A students at a DCPS school getting Fs on tests. It's a GAUNTLET and it's not for everyone. (Though my kid loves it!)

This is why people hate the BASIS boosters on here. Because you can't just say "BASIS has been great for my kid -- they've really responded well to the test-focused approach and high intensity. But kids learn different ways and maybe other kids do better with Latin's more holistic approach, or the IB programming." Instead Latin is described as lacking rigor and engaging in social promotion (totally unfounded accusations, by the way) and anyone who doesn't enjoy BASIS's approach simply can't handle it, likely because they aren't smart and hard working enough.

The lack of nuance and insistence on putting down other schools (or even just kids or families who want something other than the BASIS approach) is exhausting. It's not just that you bring BASIS up incessantly, it's that you bring it up and then insist on "winning" an argument.

It is not a good advertisement for the school, and it's especially not a good advertisement for you, as a person. BASIS actually sounds like it could be a good fit for my kid, but I find this attitude so off-putting that I sometimes wonder if it would be a good fit for our family, because I do not want to be around people like this for the next 7 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interviewing for two jobs in DC, located in Dupont Circle and Navy Yard, after living elsewhere for 8 years. My DC will be in 4th grade next year, and while getting either job is not assured, I want to be thinking ahead with the lottery coming up. I own a house on the eastern edge of Kingman Park, zoned for Miner. And I'm a single parent, so there's no one else to help get DC to and from school each day.

I know DCPS does not offer gifted programming, which DC currently receives, so I'm looking for input on schools to consider that there is a realistic shot of getting a lottery seat with at least some academic peers. I'm not interested in Montessori or immersion. I know Brent is in a swing space that isn't ideal from the Hill, and that they also lose a ton of kids at the upper grades. Maury is basically impossible to get into in any grade. Two Rivers fell off a cliff in the years I've been gone. Are there other schools I should be considering beyond the list below, with an eye towards reducing commute yet still having a sizable enough cohort of high achieving kids?

Ludlow-Taylor
Payne
John Francis (less than ideal if I get the Navy Yard job, but really convenient for Dupont)
Watkins
JO Wilson
Chisholm
Thomson (also less than ideal for a Navy Yard job, okay for Dupont)

The only charter that seemed to fit my criteria was Friendship Chamberlain. The other higher achieving charters are mostly language immersion and/or an inconvenient commute. Am I missing any?

And before anyone asks, no, moving to another part of the Hill, let alone Ward 3, isn't really an option. I'm loathe to give up the sub-3% interest rate, and while I would make a decent amount of money selling, it's not enough to offset how much prices have gone up and the much higher interest rates.

The lack of gifted programming does kind of stink. Do whatever works for 4th and then try for Latin or BASIS or DCI.

Our path was solved by going to BASIS (which has flaws, but at least they are challenged and learn a lot and have lots of gifted peers) and doing CTY in the summers (also popular with BASIS students).

Basis isn’t great but better than other offerings. Take a look at some high school threads to see why.

BASIS seems to only work for a very specific kind of kid. The school has a huge amount of turnover among students, and goes very deep into its waitlist. Latin is basically the opposite. They take very few kids and almost no one turns then down or leaves.

Because of lack of rigor and social promotion.

It's been wild to see just how rigorous BASIS is. Like 99th percentile aptitude students who would easily by straight A students at a DCPS school getting Fs on tests. It's a GAUNTLET and it's not for everyone. (Though my kid loves it!)

This is why people hate the BASIS boosters on here. Because you can't just say "BASIS has been great for my kid -- they've really responded well to the test-focused approach and high intensity. But kids learn different ways and maybe other kids do better with Latin's more holistic approach, or the IB programming." Instead Latin is described as lacking rigor and engaging in social promotion (totally unfounded accusations, by the way) and anyone who doesn't enjoy BASIS's approach simply can't handle it, likely because they aren't smart and hard working enough.

The lack of nuance and insistence on putting down other schools (or even just kids or families who want something other than the BASIS approach) is exhausting. It's not just that you bring BASIS up incessantly, it's that you bring it up and then insist on "winning" an argument.

It is not a good advertisement for the school, and it's especially not a good advertisement for you, as a person. BASIS actually sounds like it could be a good fit for my kid, but I find this attitude so off-putting that I sometimes wonder if it would be a good fit for our family, because I do not want to be around people like this for the next 7 years.

I'm not sure who you are responding to. But it's hard to imagine anyone getting to having middle school aged children and still being judgemental about schools. We chose BASIS but have very good friends at all kinds of other schools (Latin, DCI, Francis, Oyster adams, SH, Deal, privates, ITS). I can't imagine judging each other -- we are all doing the best we can. In my real world, there is zero judgement and lots of friendship. And living in DC for years means making friends in lots of circumstances.

DCUM is different, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm interviewing for two jobs in DC, located in Dupont Circle and Navy Yard, after living elsewhere for 8 years. My DC will be in 4th grade next year, and while getting either job is not assured, I want to be thinking ahead with the lottery coming up. I own a house on the eastern edge of Kingman Park, zoned for Miner. And I'm a single parent, so there's no one else to help get DC to and from school each day.

I know DCPS does not offer gifted programming, which DC currently receives, so I'm looking for input on schools to consider that there is a realistic shot of getting a lottery seat with at least some academic peers. I'm not interested in Montessori or immersion. I know Brent is in a swing space that isn't ideal from the Hill, and that they also lose a ton of kids at the upper grades. Maury is basically impossible to get into in any grade. Two Rivers fell off a cliff in the years I've been gone. Are there other schools I should be considering beyond the list below, with an eye towards reducing commute yet still having a sizable enough cohort of high achieving kids?

Ludlow-Taylor
Payne
John Francis (less than ideal if I get the Navy Yard job, but really convenient for Dupont)
Watkins
JO Wilson
Chisholm
Thomson (also less than ideal for a Navy Yard job, okay for Dupont)

The only charter that seemed to fit my criteria was Friendship Chamberlain. The other higher achieving charters are mostly language immersion and/or an inconvenient commute. Am I missing any?

And before anyone asks, no, moving to another part of the Hill, let alone Ward 3, isn't really an option. I'm loathe to give up the sub-3% interest rate, and while I would make a decent amount of money selling, it's not enough to offset how much prices have gone up and the much higher interest rates.

The lack of gifted programming does kind of stink. Do whatever works for 4th and then try for Latin or BASIS or DCI.

Our path was solved by going to BASIS (which has flaws, but at least they are challenged and learn a lot and have lots of gifted peers) and doing CTY in the summers (also popular with BASIS students).

Basis isn’t great but better than other offerings. Take a look at some high school threads to see why.

BASIS seems to only work for a very specific kind of kid. The school has a huge amount of turnover among students, and goes very deep into its waitlist. Latin is basically the opposite. They take very few kids and almost no one turns then down or leaves.

Because of lack of rigor and social promotion.

It's been wild to see just how rigorous BASIS is. Like 99th percentile aptitude students who would easily by straight A students at a DCPS school getting Fs on tests. It's a GAUNTLET and it's not for everyone. (Though my kid loves it!)

(And will quickly add that since there are so many tests there are lot of chances to bring grades up! But the standards really are high. At orientation the academic dean said "every BASIS student will fail something at some point"

My kid goes to Latin. I've stopping counting how many F's my child has received. They hand them out like it's their job. It's great though. The kids respond to high standards. DCPS could take note.

Love this. Kids will meet the standards that are set for them.